


Healing (Is a Process)

by waterbird13



Series: Tumblr Fics [83]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Cage Trauma, Dean figures it out, Dean is a good brother here, Gen, Hell Trauma, Hurt/Comfort, Memories of rape, Nightmares, Rape, he's trying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 14:04:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7643479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterbird13/pseuds/waterbird13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam has nightmares. Sometimes, he talks in his sleep. One night, Dean overhears the truth of one particular thing that went down in the Cage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Healing (Is a Process)

**Author's Note:**

> This is something I'm moving from Tumblr.
> 
> Warnings: this deals with memories of rape. Lucifer raped Sam in the Cage. Sam has nightmares, Dean has been a little slow to figure this out. It's hurt/comfort, angsty.

* * *

Sam has nightmares.

Sam has nightmares while wide awake, too, or flashbacks or memories or hallucinations–Dean’s never sure which, and Sam never seems eager to share. It seems like he can’t escape whatever happened in hell.

And that whatever is something Dean still doesn’t know, because Sam never talks and Dean doesn’t ask. It seems like a little much, to ask that of him.

Sam talks through his nightmares now. He never used to do that. As a matter of fact, Sam used to wake up almost silently, even on his worst nights. But now it’s like his body is too full, pain spilling out, and Dean usually gives him some space, but today he happens to be checking on the kid when he hears it.

“Dean?” Sam asks when he wakes up, eyes still sunken and skin pale, clearly not rested. He sinks back towards the wall his motel bed is up against, because it’s pretty damn unusual for him to wake up with his brother sitting on his bed, unmoving, like he’s been there for hours.

Dean’s only been there forty-eight minutes, but moving seemed too difficult. Like he’d never manage. Not after what he heard.

“He raped you,” he says emptily.

Sam flinches. “How…”

“Your dream,” Dean says. “Nightmare. You talked. I…fuck, Sammy, why didn’t you say?”

“You didn’t want to hear,” Sam says quietly. “And it’s not a big deal, I can work through this, it’s not going to stop me…”

“Shhh,” Dean says, on autopilot. “Fuck, Sammy, I…never meant to make you feel like you couldn’t talk to me. Tell me. That.”

Sam looks at him curiously. “Dean. What’s the point?”

And that feels like a slap in the face. Dean actually flinches a little bit. “The point is…the point is you shouldn’t have to deal with it alone,” Dean says. “And I should help you. However you need.”

Sam blinks. “I don’t know what will help,” he says. “I’ve been mostly trying to ignore it, which probably isn’t too sound, but it’s the Winchester way, right? Anyways, he,” he says, jerking his head into an unoccupied corner of the room, “won’t let me forget anyways.”

Dean swallows. His brother is really, really messed up.

That doesn’t make him any less his brother. That makes this hard, but Dean likes to think of himself that he doesn’t back down from challenges. If he backs down from his brother in need, he’s pretty sure that makes him the worst type of person.

“You could start by talking to me,” Dean suggests. “Whatever you feel like. You don’t have to have these nightmares and pretend it’s all okay.”

Sam looks at him sideways. “What’s the point?”

“You’re the point,” Deans says. “I…I need you to be okay, Sam. And not right now. I need you to genuinely, for real, someday be okay. That takes time. And help. And I’ll help. I want to.”

“It’s kinda an ugly thing to hear,” Sam warns.

“Yeah, I figured,” Dean says solemnly. “But I’m still willing to listen.”

Sam nods. “Not right now,” he says. “Not after…I can’t go through it again right now. But maybe later.”

Dean reaches out and touches Sam for the first time, a light squeeze to the ankle. “Whenever you’re ready,” he promises.


End file.
